DEPUTY Chief Minister and Treasurer Dave Tollner has resigned and been sent to the backbench, despite earlier telling a radio station he had nothing to publicly apologise for.

Mr Tollner was facing increasing pressure from the public and party colleagues after calling a staffer and gay son of CLP MP Gary Higgins a “pillow biter” and a “shirt lifter” last week during a parliamentary meeting.

Chief Minister Adam Giles said he has accepted Mr Tollner’s resignation after many conversations since the NT News broke the story Thursday.

“This issue got at levels where public confidence was being eroded in this area,” Mr Giles said.

“Dave realises that … and he’s a firm believer that good governance means you’ve got to have confidence from the community.”

But the Chief Minister still did not condemn the homophobic comments nor did he say if he had asked for the resignation.

“I’m not in the role of providing personal comments. My job as Chief Minister is to say that we have had a change in the deputy leader role,” Mr Giles said.

Mr Giles had defended Mr Tollner in Parliament on Thursday saying the matter had been resolved with an apology to Joshua Higgins and that the two had a “jovial” relationship and were “friends”.

Yesterday, he said the fallout from the comments had become too big to ignore.

“Perceptions become reality in politics and I want to make sure that Territorians know they have a Government who stands for all,” Mr Giles said, “and will provide leadership on what those community expectations are.”

Pressure was mounting inside the party with elected members Gary Higgins and Speaker Kezia Purick saying they could no longer work with Mr Tollner.

Ms Purick came out strongly against Mr Tollner earlier yesterday calling him a “disgrace” on Joshua Higgins’ Facebook page.

“Good for you,” Ms Purick wrote. “I have not and will not accept what Tollner has said and done. He is a disgrace.”

Mr Tollner was not at the press conference and will not be commenting on the issue, a spokesman said.

On Mix 104.9, Mr Tollner said that he did not understand what all the public outrage was about.

“No one wants to see this sort of stuff splashed all over the media,” he said.

“That’s the most damaging thing of this … I can’t see what I’m going to publicly apologise for. If I said (the slur) publicly, I think there would be a public apology required. My point though is that this wasn’t a conversation that was ever meant to be public.

“I have no issue with gay people at all. It’s not something that worries me at all.”

Labor Leader Delia Lawrie renewed calls on Mr Giles to sack Mr Tollner and said she was “relieved for the community that Dave Tollner fell on his sword.”

“He jumped before he could be dumped by colleagues on Monday,” Ms Lawrie said.

“Adam Giles has failed to show leadership. He should have demanded Dave’s resignation when the incident occurred instead of excusing the behaviour for days.”

CLP Minister Peter Chandler said the resignation was necessary.

“Dave’s a friend but there’s some things that you overstep the mark with,” he said.

Mr Tollner will now lose about $80,000 in salary, with his ministerial pay cheque cut from $240,000 down to $160,000. Mr Tollner’s responsibilities will now be handled by Mr Giles with a cabinet reshuffle expected shortly after the Casuarina by-election.